ESTUARY AND THE LOWER RIVER

Enhancing the Estuary and Lower River

The Eel estuary is the third largest coastal wetland in California, spread over roughly 10,000 acres. Reconnecting and restoring estuary habitat can provide needed rearing habitat which is vital to ensuring that juvenile salmonids are large and healthy when they enter salt water. Our goal aims to improve habitat, flows, and connectivity in the lower river to support these migrating native fish.

The Eel estuary has been diked and manipulated for over a century, but there is incredible potential to reclaim former marsh land as landowners retreat from agricultural lands increasingly prone to flooding and salt water incursion. Our work is focused on implementing effective groundwater management and preparing for climate change and sea level rise.

Groundwater Management

Public Trust Litigation

Connecting habitat

Groundwater Management

When California passed the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) in 2014, the state took the first step to begin managing groundwater use. Unfortunately, SGMA lacks the push for urgent action that we need in our watersheds. SGMA requires that all basins “achieve sustainable yield” by 2040, a timeline that allows for undesirable impacts to continue for over two decades. Enough time for species to go extinct. The state also needs to provide more guidance on standard protocols for data management and reporting, ensuring that municipalities are collecting and reporting use data in a usable manner.

A groundbreaking legal decision in 2018 determined that the public trust doctrine does apply to groundwater, and that SGMA compliance does not nullify public trust obligations. Click here to read about the case, ELF v. State Water Resources Control Board and click here to listen to a podcast episode about the decision and its implications.

Public Trust Litigation

Under California law, the Public Trust doctrine establishes that the waters and wildlife of the state belong to the people, and that the state and its subdivisions, including counties, serve as trustees of those resources for the people. Where public trust values may be affected, especially in the planning and allocation of water resources, the State and the County have an affirmative duty to consider those effects, and to avoid or minimize harm to public trust uses wherever feasible.

Thanks for Commenting on Groundwater Sustainability!

May 20, 2017

The Department of Water Resources received more comments for Humboldt County's Groundwater Alternative Plan than any other alternative plan submitted in the state. Thank you for participating in our action alert and helping us push for truly sustainable management of...

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Action Alert: Eel River Valley Groundwater Sustainability Plan

Feb 15, 2017

Humboldt County submitted an analysis of conditions in the lower Eel River groundwater basin claiming the basin has operated within sustainable yield for the past 10 years, and that it is unnecessary to adopt a groundwater sustainability plan. Given what we have seen...

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Is the Drought Over? Wrong Question!

Jan 15, 2017

Ultimately, “Is the drought over?” is the wrong question. We should ask, “Are we managing water in a sustainable manner for the long haul”? The answer to that is still “no.” Given the massive series of storms bringing rain and snow to California over the past month,...

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Connecting Habitat

The Eel River estuary presents opportunities for modeling a proactive approach to adapting to sea level rise. Sea level rise in Humboldt Bay and the Eel River Estuary is among the fastest on the west coast of North America. Tectonic activity causes the land to sink and the mountains of the Lost Coast to rise quickly. While we work to open access to spawning grounds in the headwaters of the Eel, it’s also important to connect and enhance habitat in the estuary so all those juvenile salmonids have a safe and productive place to grow.

A wide range of entities have restoration projects on-going in the estuary including the Humboldt County Resource Conservation District, California Trout, Duck Unlimited, The Wiyot Tribe, Department of Fish and Wildlife, and more. And yet, we need more! The region needs a comprehensive Sea Level Rise Vulnerability Assessment. But importantly, our community needs to acknowledge that informed by modern science, and facing the impacts of climate change, we cannot simply cannot manage natural resources in the same way we did 150 years ago.

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Contact Us

Membership forms and other printed material may be mailed to:

Friends of the Eel River
PO Box 4945
Arcata, CA 95518

Email: foer(at)eelriver.org

Phone: (707) 798-6345

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